Why Apple Should Not Acquire Adobe
Tuesday 20 March 2007 - Filed under apple
Venture Chronicles has an article detailing why Apple should acquire Adobe. I say “hell no”. No offense, I’m a longtime reader of the blog.
It just doesn’t make any sense unless you’re looking to buy Adobe and Apple stock to sell off after the merger announcement.
Apple Should Focus on the Platform
The last thing Apple needs is a multi-billion dollar portfolio of software products to maintain. It’s already a major undertaking to provide not only OS X but the polished Cocoa API and Objective C that keeps developers for the OS X platform happy.
Can You Say Creative Monopoly?
Apple already has a suite of products geared toward the creative professional be it music or photography or general web content creation. Do we really want Apple to own the whole spectrum of digital creation? Even with their skill at making great software products, certainly not me. We need the competition.
Too Much Code Cruft
We’ve all seen the storm of words flashing with practically every Adobe product that’s been around. Even Adobe Reader takes forever to load with all these mysterious APIs being loaded and a truck load of names listed under the product names. Adobe products still take forever to load too (even the new Universal Binary version of Photoshop takes a bit of time to load).
These Adobe products have been developed over decades and for cross platform compatibility. There’s a boat load of code there that wont go away without being rewritten. Investing in a code base like this would probably present more risks than opportunities for Apple. It’s a multi-billion dollar behemoth with a long history.
What About Windows?
The fact is over 90% of the world is still Windows. Do we really want Apple to own a major chunk of windows software (I’m a mac user by the way). Despite their best intentions, I doubt Apple will be as diligent with the windows version. Most of the code is ready built for Windows so an acquisition by Apple might take it in the opposite direction.
Is it Worth Billions of Dollars?
From a monetary valuation view, sure but maybe not for Apple. Integrating Adobe’s culture, getting familiar with the codebase, and handling the sales will dilute Apple resources and may bring both down like the HP/Compaq merger. Such large scale mergers rarely make sense unless your a bank.
All in all, if Apple acquires Adobe or any large software company, they’re in for a nasty surprise and a rocky road ahead. Not only that, they run the risk of alienating the diverse, wonderful third party developers happily cranking out great stuff for the mac platform.
Of course, all this is hypothetical so there you have it.
Why Apple Should Acquire Adobe : Venture Chronicles
2007-03-20 » baron
20 March 2007 @ 11:35 pm
The valuation issue is the one thing that would cause me pause, essentially, with uplift APPL would be acquiring a company that is 1/3 of it’s valuation. That’s a lot to digest but the flip side is that ADBE is a nicely profitable company and throws off a good amount of free cash.
Insofar as your other concerns, focusing on the platform is exactly why this makes sense. Better integration of ADBE platform technologies into OSX would be a leapfrog move.
Most of the world is still Windows but Apple is already making a cross platform play with iTunes, allowing Parallels to exist, and lastly, Microsoft itself is a major Mac app supplier with Office.
The creative suite monopoly is something to consider, but Adobe already has that more or less with Photoshop and if Apple really is the benevolent dictator then perhaps having it all under one label would actually be good for consumers. Being a monopoly is in itself neither illegal or indicative of actual consumer damage. There’s always hope for GIMP….
21 March 2007 @ 12:11 am
[...] Baron.vc has a counterpoint post worth [...]
21 March 2007 @ 12:28 am
Agreed, Adobe’s code is bloated and Apple shouldn’t waste their money buying the company.
Apple ought to instead produce their own streamlined killer apps to compete with Adobe’s. I’m ready for Apple’s answer to Photoshop, Illustrator and Dreamweaver. Besides being bloated, Adobe’s applications are a pain to use. I guess it’s a by-product of writing software for the common Windows denominator. They don’t integrate well with the rest of the Mac OS X system. For example, you can’t just drag a file from the Finder into Photoshop. Also, the widgets and organization, by Tiger standards, is a throwback to OS 9. There’s no dazzle or fun in the interface. The workflow is overcomplicated. Arcane key strokes and convoluted modal environments which take twisting your mind to comprehend and learn. No wonder they have a loyal user base. No one would abandon that hard earned knowledge.
Apple could easily make better streamlined and productivity targeted products that take full advantage of the new technologies in Mac OS X and increase the creative communities productivity ten fold.
21 March 2007 @ 1:06 am
Jeff,
I think HG below you nails it and I touched upon it briefly but the fact that Adobe products work on Macs doesn’t mean that they are necessarily compatible. Full integration would be nothing short of a complete rewrite of the source code.
You rightly point out iTunes and I do suspect that Apple has some internal cross platform tools to produce iTunes & Quicktimes for Windows but Adobe’s products are probably from the opposite direction. Apple would essentially be buying the various proprietary formats owned by Adobe and nothing more as far as integration is concerned.
At least that’s my view. Thank you for taking the time to respond and link to my post.
HG,
Those are pretty much my sentiments exactly. Despite being completely dependent on the GUI, Adobe menus are neither intuitive nor logical in any way. I honestly think it contributes to the divide between designers and programmers because even programmers with an artistic inclination would revolt to some extent at using something as clumsy as an Adobe CS product any more than they need to.
A different kind of lock in indeed.
21 March 2007 @ 1:11 am
[...] the web application space. Apple has the $12b cash horde to do the transaction. Yet there are cynics [...]
21 March 2007 @ 11:25 am
Ummm…I have no problems dragging & dropping files from the finder onto the PS Icon in the dock. They open just fine. I do think the Mac version of the App has been held back do to making it a level playing field for Windows.
21 March 2007 @ 2:01 pm
The files can be dragged to the icon on the doc, but not directly into a PS file. Think Pages or Word or any other program for that matter.
I use PS every day, and all I can say is “APPLE Put them to shame NOW!”
Did you ever try GoLive? Trash!!!
Thank God is gone!
21 March 2007 @ 11:51 pm
Apple acquired Logic a few years back. It’s the most popular music recording in the market and they pretty much shut the application for PC users. As far as the software is concerned it allowed them to develop a more mature application because they no longer needed to port everything to Windows as well. On the other hand, PC users (like myself) just turned to the competing music recording software.
It’s trickier with Adobe because they bought Macromedia, their main competitor. If Apple buys Adobe, they will create a huge void in the creative market for PC’s. I reckon that would cost them with a few Monopoly lawsuits, and will eventually create more hate from those designers who can’t afford a pricy Mac.
22 March 2007 @ 2:57 am
Logic was actually one of the apps I had in mind while writing this. Even as a mac user I don’t like a company buying a big chunk of the industry and gain the power to keep the other platform in the stone ages. That just sucks for everyone. It took Adobe forever to make a Universal Binary version and it’s taking Microsoft a long time for office. I’m sure the Windows department wouldn’t get the same resources they used to.
25 March 2007 @ 10:18 pm
Apple should buy Adobe. Adobe holds a huge Patent portfolio and File Format portfolio that Apple would not have to license from Adobe. The over lap is minimum when it comes to products. Apple would be able to profit from such a merger. Slowly but surely code can be rewritten. As for discontinuing PC software, I believe that anything non-dual platform will either be discontinued or made dual platform. Apple can do this without seaming Monopolistic. Also, a monopoly mean no competition or creating an unfair environment. The Windows world has had this for decades. Apple is a niche player to the FTC and European Union. This buyout does not have to entail Cash and can be a Share for Share Merger instead. Apple should do this. Their are still companies that compete such as Avid, Quark, Microsoft, Autodesk, Corel, etc…
25 March 2007 @ 11:08 pm
Those are some valid points and I’m sure Adobe has a formidable portfolio of patents that could be put to good use. I’d really have to see a good analysis of that portfolio to fully agree. Still, I think you can only go so far to maintain excellence despite size and Apple is already on the verge of losing that balance.
Just look at Microsoft, they have so much underutilized technology and staff. I seriously think it would be a better company if they sold off half their portfolio and slashed staff in half (leaving only the excellent).
26 September 2007 @ 10:03 am
I’m ready for Apple to take over where Adobe left off, with products like GoLive. Apple should either buy GoLive and make it better, or come up with a product that is as powerful and design/user friendly as GoLive.
26 September 2007 @ 10:06 am
Continued…
As a GoLive and Dreamweaver user both… and have had DW since version 3, GoLive is a better product. Only those who’ve used it for a while would know.
12 May 2008 @ 7:25 pm
I’m one of the few that can function easily within Mac, Linux or Windows. Quite honestly, I have used both GoLive (sucks) and Dreamweaver since v2 but in either case, you still have to watch the code generation… sometimes a text editor is still the end all, that beats all!
23 November 2008 @ 8:06 pm
With Apple already providing realtime functions similar to Photoshop filters, the are on the way to be able to provide fast PSD like applications. All the need is to buy Adobe to get ahold of patents and licenses. Next step alienate Windows and then take over the market with their hardware. Look what they did to Shake. Same story here. Get rid of Windows and the world is OK again…